Kingship part 2

Matthew 19:13-15

13Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.

14 But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

15 And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.

Today's post should probably have been first in this series, but I was having these thoughts while I was driving after having read my Bible. After the disciples tried to keep the children from coming to Jesus, because he was obviously too busy doing grown up things, that they were to let the children come to him. He went on to say them that "of such is the kingdom of heaven." In another passage he says we must come to him as little children.

Children in relation to kingship.

I remember as a little boy fantasizing about being the hero. It usually involved saving the day and as I got older it also included rescuing the woman, or "damsel in distress." There was always some bad guy that needed to be defeated, because he was trying to hurt the "damsel." Now if you are a woman you may have had the opposite fantasy. You may have been wanting to be the one being rescued, but with a twist.

Ask yourself this question when you were a little kid were you just, any old girl, waiting to be rescued? I don't think so. I have observed my own little girls enough to know what character you were in the above scenario. You weren't just, "any old girl", you were the, "princess." More than likely you were the smartest, most talented, most beautiful princess in all the world. And you were either waiting on prince charming or the shining knight to come rescue you.

The point is your dreams were big. You had high hopes, no child daydreams about being the dirty little orphan who never gets enough food. Children dream about being heroes and heroines, saving the day. Somewhere along the line we lose the mystery of life. We face cynicism or bad things happen in our lives and we begin to settle for less.

We lose something as we get older and life happens that we need to get back. I am not saying that we should be totally naïve. And I am not saying that we should just bury our head in the sand and pretend all day, but there is some things about being a child that we need to get back. As I talked about in yesterdays post Jesus saved us and made us kings and priests to God. We are all royalty.

Our dreams need to become bigger again. Life is a journey, it is not always rosy, even as little kids we recognized this, after all without a "bad guy" to defeat the story would be pretty lame. As children we never doubted for one moment our ability to overcome the enemy. In my dreams, I NEVER LOST! In fact in my dreams or fantasies the thought of losing never even crossed my mind. We need to learn to trust in God no matter what situation we find ourselves in. Jesus already defeated the enemy, we are already on the winning side, now we need to act like it.

This is just a piece of the story, I hope you will continue on this journey with me.

Until next time,

May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!

Kingship part 1

The next few post's are going to be a little bit different, because I feel something so strongly that I want to write about it, even though it doesn't necessarily follow the same format as my previous posts. Sunday at church I was thinking about kingship, or royalty. I began thinking about the following questions.

 How many kings could you think of in this world who would…

 

• Eat off of the floor?
• Question their abilities or talents?
• Walk with their heads bowed down, everywhere they go?
• Settle for less if they could have more?

 

 

 

 

Revelation 1:5,6

 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen

 

Many times, we as Christian's, do not see ourselves in this light. We are under the false assumption that we are being humble, while putting ourselves down. We make all kinds of excuses as to why we couldn't possibly do what we feel like God is calling us to do. We think, "I had to have heard wrong, I couldn't possibly do this or that, so and so would be much better than, I just am not good enough." And so the work that we were meant to be doing either doesn't get done or doesn't get done as well as it could be, because someone is withholding their gift from the body.

 

This post is not to put you or myself down, I just want us to raise our expectation levels. We need to start seeing ourselves as God sees us. The above scripture states that Jesus, through His sacrifice, has made us kings and priests to God. That makes you and me royalty. We have authority here, because of what Jesus did for us. He paid a high sacrifice for us.

 

I asked the above questions, not so we could become arrogant or selfish, like some earthly kings have been. I asked the questions to really challenge our mindset as Christian's. I cannot possibly cover everything I want to cover in one post, so over the next few days and weeks I am going to attempt to cover this subject in a more thorough manner.

 

Being a leader doesn’t mean you won't have any problems, and that everything will be fun and easy. Being kings and priests involves hard work on our part, because as Christian rulers we don't rule, to Lord it over people. Our motivation comes from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and as His representatives here on earth, our goal is to build and lift others up, while violently tearing down the kingdom of the god of this age. The victory has already been bought we need to step up.

 

Ephesians 6:10-12

 

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

 

Until next time,

 

May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!

 

HE IS RISEN!

Today's post is going to explore the depths of what His sacrifice meant for us. We don't explore often enough what He did for us on the cross. His sacrifice fills me with joy and excitement that can hardly be contained. It is like the old song, there is joy unspeakable and full of glory. The joy that comes from knowing what He did for me, no words can fully describe.


The stripes that He took on His back to provide for my healing. The whole humiliation that he was subjected to as they mocked Him and gambled over his garments, while he was hanging there. He was bleeding from the deep gashes in his back, all of His weight being supported on nails that were pounded through His hands, or wrists, and feet. Gasping for breath as His lungs were struggling to get air. I deserved to die such a tragic death, but Jesus suffered my death for me.

Jesus paid the wages of death that I deserved and earned. When we hated Him, He died for us. At times I think back on all the things in my life that I had done wrong. All the ways in which I had sinned, and some of the things that I even say and do, that I regret seconds after having done them. We as human beings did not deserve and could never earn such love and sacrifice.

My heart is full of joy, for Jesus paid the price that I could never pay. I owed a debt that I could never pay, because of my actions, that I did freely of my own will, I owed trillions of dollars. A debt so big that I would never have been able to pay off, if I could work 100 lifetimes. He marked them, paid in full, but He did so much more than that.

Not only did he pay off my debt, he freely gave me so much more. Because He died and then rose again, I have life. I have been freed to live a life full of goodness. I was trapped in my sin, no matter how much I tried not to, I always failed. I was stuck! His sacrifice freed me to live a life that would be pleasing to Him. Sin was defeated on the cross.

I hated myself, I wanted to quit doing those things, but I could never gain victory. I would do okay for a while, but then I would go back to doing what I despised. It was a vicious circle, that I could not break. And in one moment, it was broken, because of the sacrifice He made for me. He is risen, sin and death has been defeated, and now I have life, a life that I did not deserve. And as if all this weren't enough, He promised me eternal life with Him in heaven.

Most peoples god's have them begging for just crumbs from the table. Jesus spread out a full table before us. Most peoples god's demand much and give little. Jesus gave His life, to pay for our sin, offer us healing, gave us victory, and gave us the hope of eternal life with Him. Most peoples god's demand love, Jesus gave love. Most peoples god's are either dead and buried or are pieces of wood or clay that they made with their own hands, Jesus is alive and at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, His children. Most peoples god's are far away, Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit, as a helper for us.

HE IS RISEN!

Until next time.

May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!